Richard Hazell had his sentence increased at the Court of Appeal on Thursday

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A paedophile who once appeared on Dragon's Den as a contestant will spend years longer in prison after judges ruled his original sentence was 'unduly lenient'.

Richard Hazell, 49, of Hoddesdon, abused four young girls and when his business and home were searched police found thousands of indecent images of children.

The married man, who has a child of his own, was convicted of four sexual assaults and nine indecent images of children crimes and was jailed for four years and nine months at St Albans Crown Court in June.

After a review at the Court of Appeal yesterday (November 9), his sentence was increased to seven years and three months.

Hazell was accused of preying on pre-teen girls, indecently touching them by fondling their genitals and bottoms and having an interest in indecent images of children.

During the trial in June the prosecution read out a search made on Hazell's computer on August 30 last year, which said 'can you be found guilty for downloading child porn if the files are deleted on your computer'.

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Images found during a police search included two pictures taken of two young girls on a beach in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on October 24, 2015, where he was on holiday with his wife and six-year-old daughter.

These images had been cropped to zoom into one of the girl's vagina, which was visible as she wore no underwear.

Another image shows Hazell's face superimposed onto a naked man's body holding the hand of a young girl with no clothes on.

Hazell claimed the image was made as a practical joke by someone he knows after a group of friends went on holiday in Jamaica in April last year and found out they were staying next to a nudist beach.

The case went to the Court of Appeal after a referral by attorney general Jeremy Wright QC, on the basis that the sentence was too soft.